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Abiotic stress responses in plants

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 23, pages 104–119 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Plants cannot move, so they must endure abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity and extreme temperatures. These stressors greatly limit the distribution of plants, alter their growth and development, and reduce crop productivity. Recent progress in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the responses of plants to abiotic stresses emphasizes their multilevel nature; multiple processes are involved, including sensing, signalling, transcription, transcript processing, translation and post-translational protein modifications. This improved knowledge can be used to boost crop productivity and agricultural sustainability through genetic, chemical and microbial approaches.

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Fig. 1: Abiotic stress can be sensed in various cellular compartments to initiate molecular responses at multiple levels.
Fig. 2: Proposed salinity and drought stress sensing and signalling mechanisms.
Fig. 3: Proposed cold and heat stress sensing and signalling mechanisms.
Fig. 4: Stress responses at the levels of transcription and transcript processing.
Fig. 5: Stress responses at the levels of translation and epigenetic regulation.
Fig. 6: Genetic–chemical–microbial strategy for improving abiotic stress resistance in crops.

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Acknowledgements

The authors apologize to those colleagues whose work is not cited owing to space constraints. H.Z. and J-K.Z. have been supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Z.G. acknowledges grants from the National Science Foundation of China (31730007, 32030008, 31921001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Huiming Zhang & Jian-Kang Zhu

  2. Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Jianhua Zhu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Zhizhong Gong

  4. Institute of Life Science and Green Development, School of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, China

    Zhizhong Gong

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J.-K. Z. and H.Z. researched, discussed and wrote the article. All authors reviewed and/or edited the article before submission.

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Glossary

Hyperosmotic stress

Increased extracellular osmolarity that leads to cell dehydration.

Pectins

Acidic polysaccharides that are critical for plant cell wall properties such as cohesion and electrostatic potential.

Extensins

Hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins that are essential components of the cell wall.

Phase transition

A qualitative change in the state of a system under a continuous change in an external parameter, such as the reversible condensation of certain proteins within cells in response to changing temperature.

Retrograde signalling

Signalling from organelles to the nucleus.

Systemic acquired acclimation

A systemic response to abiotic stimuli, which involves long-distance communication among cells belonging to different tissues or organs.

Epialleles

Isogenic alleles with different epigenetic modifications that are passed from generation to generation.

Quantitative trait loci

Chromosome regions that statistically contribute to the variability of a quantitative phenotype.

Genome-wide association studies

Approaches searching the entire genome using single-nucleotide polymorphisms for chromosome regions that show consistent correlation with a particular phenotype, within a large population of individuals with contrasting and varying degree of the phenotype.

Marker-assisted breeding

An approach for breeding in which the selection of desired individuals is based on the score of molecular markers.

Rhizosphere

The soil layer that surrounds, and is influenced by, plant roots.

Microbiota

All microorganisms that inhabit a defined region.

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Zhang, H., Zhu, J., Gong, Z. et al. Abiotic stress responses in plants. Nat Rev Genet 23, 104–119 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-021-00413-0

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